In Desperation
by Starchii
Summary: [TemaXKiba] [Oneshot] When everything seemed to be going down the drain for a certain Suna kunoichi, will prince charming come in to sweep her off her feet? Or will she be left with nothing but a broken heart?


A/N: Hello all, this is Starchii back at her first attempt at a one-shot. I'm writing this story for one of my dearest reviewers, Bleeding-lily. She has inspired me so much for my other story, A Test of Insanity. I love you Lily-chan, and thank you for everything!

Inspiration Music: The Kill by 30 Seconds to Mars and This is the New Shit by Marilyn Manson.

Disclaimer: I do not in any way own Naruto…I'm not pulling in cash for writing this so don't even try to sue me.

In Desperation

Temari nonchalantly fixed one of her dirty blonde ponytails as she walked through the door to her hotel that she was staying at while in Konoha. Suna had sent her to Konoha once again to help prepare for the upcoming renewals of the alliance treaty. It seemed that Gaara sent her there a lot, mostly because he knew of her small crush on the lazy genius, Shikamaru. Speaking of the cloud gazer, she was meant to meet him in about half an hour in her hotel lobby, to discuss something important. Rolling her eyes at the prospect of him being serious for once, she began to climb the stairs up to her room. There was an elevator but she preferred the stairs, it gave her time to think about things and mull over ideas.

"Maybe that lazy idiot wants to tell me how gorgeous he thinks I am," she muttered to herself sarcastically as she opened the door to her floor and walked silently down the narrow hallway.

'One hundred three, one hundred four, one hundred five, here we are,' she thought as she slipped her electronic key into the door labeled with large golden numbers reading '106'. Slipping quietly into her small but cozy room she leaned her large battle fan on the wall beside the bathroom door and walked over to her bed. She plopped down with a small grunt and picked up a small remote lying next to her. Pressing the button labeled power, she smiled as the radio next to her television flipped on and began to play an upbeat rock song. Groaning once she stood up and walked over to the radio where her little black iPod Nano sat playing her music. Picking it up, she scrolled through the songs for a moment before selecting one and clicking on it. Immediately her speakers began to play a different song, one of her favorites.

"And this will be, relatively painless, with an impact like a train wreck. And you believe there is no escape, yet, you will find it through you're headset. Sorry, this machine is speeding so fast that I threw you off. Words you spread in privacy are killing me! I know I hurt you, but I'll hurt you more if I don't let you go," she sang along with the band playing the music as she made her way over to her bathroom. She danced her way inside and flicked on the blinding fluorescent lights above her. Almost immediately she walked over to the single mirror and stared at herself in the reflection. Smirking, she grabbed her small container of lip-gloss; she spread a bit over her pink lips and gave herself another smile. The lights made her lips look a bit overly shiny but she let it drop not really caring how good or how bad she looked; make-up really wasn't her thing anyways. Getting annoyed with the bathroom, she quickly left and walked back into her carpeted room.

Temari strolled silently over to her small black backpack and pulled out a change of clothes. The ones clinging to her body were full of sweat, grime, and dirt from training a little too harshly that morning. Stepping out of her disgusting garments, she slipped on an identical outfit making it look as though she hadn't even changed in the first place. She threw the dirty clothes into a pile in the corner making a note to use the washing machine later and pulled her hitae-ite on tighter. Taking one last look at herself in the full body mirror propped against the wall, she grabbed her key card and stalked back out of her room completely forgetting to turn off her music.

Opting to use the elevator since she was running a bit late, she pressed the small button and waited as the elevator let out a small ding noise. Tapping her foot impatiently, she watched as the metal contraption changed floors, coming up. Letting out another ding noise, the heavy metal doors to the elevator slid open. About to hop on, she jumped a little when she saw Shikamaru standing in the elevator giving her his usual 'everything is troublesome' look. Smirking, she let the boy pass her and walk out of the elevator. Immediately after he left the elevator, the doors slid closed and it moved back down to the first floor.

"I thought we were meeting in the lobby?" She asked as she crossed her arms under her breasts, waiting for his answer. He glanced up at her a moment, before returning his gaze to the floor and rubbing the back of his head.

"Well, you were running late, so I came up here looking for you," he said, his eyes still glued to the hotel floor. Temari raised an eyebrow at him, not believing what he was saying.

"That's definitely not like you, you're too lazy to look for anyone. You probably just wanted to sneak a glance at me while I was changing," she said, a smirk growing on her lips. Shikamaru once again glanced up at her, but this time he didn't look back to the floor.

"Look, can we go to your room, I don't really want to talk about this where other people can hear it," he said as he took a step in the direction of her room. Temari had earlier told him the room number so he could call the hotel if he needed her for anything. Seeing he was serious about talking to her, she nodded and walked back to her room. Quickly unlocking the door, she turned and gave him a small smile, hoping for some kind of reaction. He simply sighed and walked forward, forcing her to move out of his way and take a step back into her room. Glancing at him with concern, she followed him into her room. Her stereo was now playing 'The Kill' by 30 Seconds to Mars with more aggression than she remembered or maybe that was just her nerves playing tricks on her.

Shikamaru sat down quietly on her bed and patted the spot next to him, indicating her wanted her to sit beside him. Temari nodded absently and walked over to her bed and took a seat on his left. Maybe he was finally going to tell her how he felt about her! Just that thought made Temari's heart rate begin to rise.

"So, lazy-ass, what is this about anyways?" She asked, her voice not betraying how nervous she really was. Letting out yet another sigh, he turned to face her, a grimace plastered on his face.

"This is so troublesome," he muttered under his breath before continuing, "Temari…I came to tell you something."

Temari really couldn't take it now, her heart felt as though it was about to explode out of her chest. It was thumping so loud, she was almost positive Shikamaru could hear it's every beat.

"Yeah…what is it?" She asked, still not letting him outwardly know how she was feeling at the moment. He ran his hand through his hair and gave her a weak smile before dropping his hand once more.

"I came…to let you know…that I know about how you feel about me," he said slowly as though he were gathering his thoughts and trying to find the right words to say. The color on Temari's face drained when he said that, now she was positive she was going to have to kill whoever told him…or absolutely love that person forever, depending on how this situation turned out.

"Er…right," she said nervously while tugging on one of her four ponytails.

"And, I just wanted you to know…that I don't feel the same way…about you," he said, once again slowly, trying to get her to understand exactly what he was saying. For a moment, she wasn't sure exactly what she heard but her obliviousness soon faded away for the cold, hard truth. Temari subconsciously clenched her jaw tight as her eyes dropped away from his face and fell to the floor.

"Oh…" She said simply as her body seemed to go limp and watery, making her feel like unfrozen Jell-o. Shikamaru nodded and stood from his position on the bed. He placed his hand on her shoulder for a moment before removing it.

"I…just thought you should know," he said before walking out of her hotel room. As soon as her door clicked closed for some reason, unbridled fury set into Temari and she picked up the closest thing to her and hurled it at the door. Unfortunately for her stereo remote, it shattered upon contact and let out this loud crashing noise. Growling, she flung herself back on her bed, unshed tears glittering in her eyes as she glared at the ceiling, hating it more than anything else at the moment.

Her body ached all over as her mind began to swim with rather unpleasant thoughts, running along the lines of how very depressing her life was becoming. Ever since Gaara had been returned to the village after Akatsuki's attack on him, everything just seemed to be deteriorating slowly. At first it was the same, but slowly she found out that less and less people wanted to be around her because of her short temper. Temari always had had a strong temper but after almost losing the only family she had left it just got worse. The loss of her friends was something she could almost deal with because she still had friends in Konoha that still wanted her in their lives but then she found that she didn't get as many mission requests. Gaara calmly told her that he just couldn't give her so many because there was such a limited number of shinobi in the village willing to work with her on their teams. That was an emotional blow, but eventually she was out of that rut when Gaara suggested her to group missions with Konoha shinobi, most of the time with Shikamaru and his team.

Temari had quickly grown close to the team, but especially to Shikamaru. Ino was fun to hang around when she needed a girl to talk with about well…girl things. Chouji was great when she felt like discussing food and finding new recipes to make for herself. Asuma was nice when she needed a person to guide her in the right direction, help her make the right decisions…but Shikamaru was the person she went to for everything else. When she needed help with mission tactics or strategy, she went to him. When she needed to talk about random things to keep her mind off the person she had just killed, she went to him. And now…she couldn't go to him anymore…he didn't want her…he just admitted to it…Glaring angrily at the ceiling, she stood and went over to her backpack.

Opening a small side pouch, she pulled out a steel kunai, begging to be used. The shiny metal glittered in the lamplight as she walked back over to her bed and sat down. She allowed herself to admire the steel for just another moment before she lifted her left leg onto her lap. Taking one last look at the perfectly flawless skin there, she placed the cold metal against her leg preparing to take one slice out of her own body. Biting her lip and steeling her resolve, she swiped the blade across her leg and tingled with pain as a small cut opened up. Soon blood was rushing from the still tingling wound. Glaring at her leg as though it weren't good enough, she placed the blade once more on her skin and prepared to do it again. Just as she was about to slip the sharpened metal across her skin once more, the door to her room burst open. Jumping slightly, she looked up to see someone she vaguely recognized but her vision was swimming so she couldn't really put a name to the face.

"Oh my God, Temari! What the hell are you doing?" Asked the apparent male, according to the voice. Temari shook as the kunai dropped from her hand and clattered with a dull thud onto her floor.

"I…don't really know…I just remember Shikamaru…and, and…everything," she said shakily as her warm blood began to leak from her cut onto the floor, making the black carpet darker. She felt a pair of muscled arms wrap around her and even though she wasn't sure she knew this person she allowed herself to lean into his hold.

"It's okay…he's gone now, just rest now, Temari," he said as he laid her back onto her bed and allowed her to lie there. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some bandages. Silently, he wrapped them around her leg where the cut was slowly beginning to stop bleeding. Sighing, he stood and made to leave before he heard a shaky voice call out from behind him.

"W-Wait…please…don't leave, I-I don't want to be alone," Temari said as she curled herself into a ball and allowed her tears to flood over the side of her eyelids and slide down her cheeks. He paused for a moment before walking back into the room.

"Alright…I'll stay here for the night, Temari," he said as he took a seat on the couch and waited for her to fall asleep. Temari nodded slowly, she wasn't sure who's mouth was speaking the words but she was definitely beginning to fall in love with that voice.

"Thank…you," she said before she fell into a deep sleep, clouded by nightmares.

Temari jumped up from her spot on the bed with a small cry. Did what she just dream really happen, or was her reality a dream? Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she lifted her left leg up into her lap again and stared with shock at the slightly blood covered bandages. What the hell was she thinking? Cutting herself? That wasn't Temari, not at all. Then, the entire memory of what happened the night before flooded back and her head shot over to the couch in her room. No one was there; she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Maybe that part was part of her own conscious trying to stop her from doing anything else stupid.

"Er…Temari…I'm sorry I'm still here I just wanted to stay here until you woke up so you knew that I didn't really abandon you," said the voice she remembered from the night before. Temari flipped her head over to the other side and stared at one Inuzuka Kiba. She didn't know him that well…but she did know him and she knew that he was on the same team as Hyuuga Hinata, a girl that she had become quite fond of in Konoha.

"You were the one that came in here last night and stopped me?" She asked as she continued to stare at him, Kiba simply nodded sheepishly, "Why?" At the question, Kiba began to flinch a little bit under stare, looking like a lost puppy.

"Well…I ran into Shikamaru on the sidewalk outside of the hotel…he told me to come up to this room and check on you, so I did. When I got to your floor, I found a cleaning maid standing outside of your door looking kind of worried. She said she heard some loud crashes coming from inside. I told her I knew who the girl in the room was and she unlocked the door for me and I came in and saw blood on your leg and you having a bloody kunai in your hand. I panicked so I sort of shouted at you," he said as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly giving her grin that flashed his pointed canines. Temari blinked a few times before standing from her position in the bed and walking silently over to him. She stared into his slightly feral eyes for a few moments before wrapping her arms around him, in a tight hug.

"Thank…you, Kiba," she said with a small smile. Kiba tentatively wrapped his arms around her too, making her feel safe for once. For a moment, she pulled away and found her body working before her mind was. She brushed a small, chaste kiss on his lips, feeling overwhelmingly grateful for what he did for her.

"Why did you stay when I asked you too?" She asked, searching his face for answers. Kiba bit his lip, looking uncomfortable in the situation, a blush staining his cheeks. He found her blue eyes and stared into them for a moment before answering.

"Because you asked me to," he said softly. Temari smiled weakly and kissed him again, this time a full kiss. Her lips crashed into his and he met hers with just as much passion as she was showing. She wasn't sure what she was doing, sure he basically saved her from well…herself, but should she really be kissing him. She hardly even knew the guy! But as the kiss began to deepen into something more than just peck or a loving little kiss, she realized it didn't matter if she knew him or not…it was all in desperation that last night happened and now it was for something in her mind, telling her it was right. Twisting herself so that his back was to the bed, she leaned forward a bit making him lose balance and fall back onto the bed. Their lips never once parted as they lay in the hotel bed and allowed their bodies to mesh together as one.

A/N: Yeah, so I'm not sure if I liked it, but I would really like your opinion on it!! I hope it wasn't completely terrible and I hope that it wasn't a complete waste of time. Well, I need to stop babbling…I need to write ANOTHER one-shot and another chapter of my multi-chapter story. Thanks for reading! Musically yours, Starchii.


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